Trump’s EPA to Reject Icahn-Backed Tweak to Biofuel Program

Trump’s EPA to Reject Icahn-Backed Tweak to Biofuel Program

The Trump administration is set to deal a blow to billionaire investor and presidential adviser Carl Icahn by rejecting his bid to relieve refiners of a burden to satisfy U.S. biofuel mandates, according to people briefed on the move. The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to formally deny requests by Valero Energy Corp., Icahn’s CVR Energy Inc. and other oil companies to shift the compliance burden for using ethanol and other biofuels away from refiners, moving it to fuel blenders and other entities instead. The people asked not to be identified discussing the policy action before it was announced, possibly before the end of this week. The EPA proposed rejecting the change last November under former President Barack Obama. But analysts had raised the prospect of a reversal amid pressure from Icahn, who serves as an unpaid special regulatory adviser to President Donald Trump. Current law obligates refiners and importers to meet annual quotas for using biodiesel and traditional renewable fuel such as ethanol. Refiners are affected unevenly by the mandates; those that don’t have infrastructure to blend in the biofuels themselves must instead buy credits to comply. (BLOOMBERG.COM)